第十四章 PAREGMENON, MALAPROPISM, CORRECTION
14.1 Paregmenon
14.1A Paregmenon的含义和形式
1） Paregmenon，汉译“同源”格。1993年3月4日美国电视节目“You Bet Your Life”主持人讲出“Don't you boast like a popcorn popper?”时，引出观众一阵大笑。句中pop和popper同源，把同源词连用构成的修辞结构即称为同源辞格。又如：
You shouldn't interrupt my interruptions: That's really worse than interrupting.
（T. S. Eliot）
2） 同源词可以是不同词性，也可以含义相反，只要搭配得当，都可以构成同源格。例如：
Home is home though never so homely.
（Proverb, 形式为N.+Adj.）
Aerial and light everything was, new as a morning, fresh and newly-begun. Like a dawn the newness and the bliss filled in.
（D. H. Lawrence, 形式为Adj.+Adv.+N.）
Money often unmakes the men who make it.
（Proverb，形式为反义词）
14.1B Paregmenon的使用
1） 同源格是一种特殊的重复，即通过使用同一词源的不同词性或不同含义的几个词，取得重复强调或反衬对照的效果；它在英语的不同文体中都广为使用。例如：
Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.
（Shakespeare）
Alas, good friend, what profit
can you see in hating such a
hateless thing as me?
（Shelly）
He looked down and met her eyes. They were darker than darkness, and gave deeper space.
（D. H. Lawrence）
Man must change in a changing world. — Proverb
Rejecting Rejection.
上述最后一例系Katina Z. Jones在1992年8月 Writer's Digest 上一篇文章的题目，内容谈作家在未成名之前往往遭受退稿之苦，正确的态度是不要气馁，坚持再写。这个同源结构表现了作者不怕挫折的精神。
2） 同源格既能以简练的反衬做到准确、鲜明，又能与矛盾修饰（11.2B）配合表示诙谐、辛辣。例如：
What's done can't be undone.
（Proverb）
句中undone一词言简意赅，不容更改，如要paraphrase成What hasn't been done之类的从句则令人难以接受。这样的例子在谚语和经典作品中经常可以见到。下面再举几例：
While pensive poets painful vigils keep, sleepless themselves, to give readers sleep.
（A. Pope）
She was in her own world, quiet, secure, unnoticed, unnoticing.
（D. H. Lawrence）
Teach the unforgetful to forget.
（D. G. Rossetti）
I was prepared to be persecuted for not persecuting ...
（G. Eliot）
... for what says Quinapalus?
Better's a witty fool than a foolish wit.
（W. Shakespeare）
句中fool和wit分别与foolish, witty同源，witty fool和foolish wit各自构成矛盾修饰。用词简洁，结构工整，话说得既俏皮，又深刻，自成千古名句。类似的例子还有：
The shackles of an old love straighten'd him. His honour in dishonour stood.
And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.
（A. Tennyson）
14.2 Malapropism
14.2A Malapropism的含义与形式
1） Malapropism指荒唐可笑的词语误用，俗称“飞白”（Mimesis），尤指使用发音相似而意义全非的词语，例如把“破绽”的“绽”（zhan）读成“定”（语音飞白），把“刻不容缓”改成“咳不容缓”（文字飞白，药品广告）等。
2） 18世纪英国著名剧作家Richard Sheridan的喜剧The Rivals中有个名叫Malaprop的人物，地位显贵而知识浅薄，好卖弄词藻，但因一知半解而满口错字别音，闹出许多笑话。后来就从这个人物的名字演变成为malapropism这样一种修辞格式，即利用近音异义，有意地利用白字别音的一种语言表达形式。
14.2B Malapropism的修辞作用
1） 由于乡音重或缺乏正规教育，有些人标准音发不准，以致常在说话时弄出错误。例如：
“The girls were up at four this morning, packing her trunks, sister,”replied Miss Jemima; “We have made her a bow-pot.”
“Say a bouquet, sister Jemima, it's more genteel.”
“Well, a booky as big almost as a hay-stack; ...”
（Thackeray）
Jemima由于文化水平低，先是把bouquet说成bowpot，后虽经她姐姐纠正，还是未弄清，又错说成booky，一错再错，既令人好笑，又令人同情，作家这样描写，全是为刻画人物的需要。
2） 有的人明明知识不多，却不懂装懂，洋相百出。例如：
When Miss Sharp had performed the heroical act mentioned in the last chapter, and had seen the Dixonary flying over the pavement of the little garden ... and she sank in the carriage in an easy frame of mind, saying,“So much for the Dixonary; and thank God, ...”
（Thackeray）
同上例不同的是，作家在这里使用Malapropism，是为了讽刺和嘲弄Miss Sharp这类人的。
3） 在儿童文学作品中，作家常用这种辞格表现儿童的说话特点。例如：
“Ernest，”said Theobald, from the arm-chair in front of the fire, where he was sitting with his hands folded before him,“don't you think it would be very nice if you were to say ‘come’ like other people, ...?” “I do say tum,” replied Ernest, meaning that he had said “come”.
（Samuel Butler）
幼小的Ernest把come说成tum，父亲纠正了，孩子还是讲错。看来还应告诉他如何摆正舌位才行。又如：
“Sh-sh!”said Ruth. “Now you must listen. Mrs. Escobar's going to read you a lovely story about an owl and pussy, ....”
Mrs.Escobar began:
“The aul and the pooseh-cut went to sea ...”
（Leonard Xuxeley）
这里Escobar太太是在以儿童口吻给孩子讲故事。她故意把owl（猫头鹰）和pussy cat （猫）说成它们发音相近的aul和pooseh-cut这样两个别音词，同孩子们逗趣。
4） 白字别音是构成幽默笑话的常用手段。例如：
Questioner:What's usually used as a conductor of electricity?
Examinee:Why-er ...
Questioner:Correct, wire. Now tell me, what is the unit of electric power?
Examinee:The what?
Questioner:That's absolutely right. The Watt.
假若某人接受面试时能这样歪打正着，显然只能是说笑话罢了。又如：
A man from the Continent was travelling in England. He had caught a very bad cold. He coughed day and night. Then he put on his coat and hat and went to a chemist's. When asked what he wanted, the traveller said,“I want something for my cow, please.” ...
这是人们熟知的笑话。他根据英语字母组合-ough的发音可以是[aʊ]的经验推测，把cough误说成cow，试想如果不是药店人员细心询问，不知还会闹出什么笑话来。
14.3 Correction
14.3A Correction的含义与形式
1） Correction亦称Epanorthosis，汉译“换语”，意思是改换前言，用一个更恰当、更明确、更深刻或更有力的说法取代或补充刚刚说过的话。例如：
... most brave, nay, most heroic act!
（Webster's Third New International Dictionary）
前面讲了most brave，但又觉得不够，于是用nay加以否定，换成most heroic。
2） 从结构上看，前面已说过的话和新的说法两者构成并列关系。这种并列结构的含义有转折、递进、让步等（参见笔者拙作《分析英语语法》16.2节），担任连接成分的有否定词no, nay，并列连词or, and，等。例如：
... But if the defendant had asked his hosts, or rather had only hinted, this could easily have been accomplished.
（Patricia Bizzell）
句中or以引出的换语rather had only hinted有让步含义。
... All the while I was working at, and learning to write, fiction.
（Writer's Digest, Aug. 1992）
句中and learning to write是对前面working at的修正，连词and也可以换用or，但相比之下，and语气较为恳切。
14.3B Correction的使用
1） 日常说话中，有时说出一句话或说出半句时，觉得不够妥帖，于是往往自觉不自觉地使用换语。1993年4月29日美CBC节目中就有这样一个例子：
Do you think — do you believe that wild life can be preserved this way?
（Harry Smith）
2） 书面语中的换语通常是一种有意安排的加强语气的修辞手法。因为前面已有说法，并且使用的词语较为平常，改换说法之后，词语更为准确、鲜明、生动，就会大大加深读者的印象。例如：
After the men in question had conquered, or rather had been conquered — for how shall I call that which has brought more disaster than benefit to the conquerors?
（McCrimmon）
先用主动语态had conquered，再改换成被动语态had been conquered，形成一种强烈的对比，如果直接用被动语态，句子就显得弱了。
Plagiarism is the use of someone else's writing without giving proper credit — or perhaps writing without giving any credit at all — to the writer of the original.
（McCrimmon）
从without giving proper credit改换成without giving any credit at all，语气大为增强。
3） 通过使用换语，还可形成对照。例如：
O Virtue's companion, Envy, who art to pursue good men, yes, even to persecute them.
（Patricia Bizzell）
从pursue good men到persecute them，一针见血地道出了Virtue与Envy之间的区别，对后者具有尖锐的批判和讽刺意味。
诗人Robert Herrick的诗To Electra共两节，两句话，第二节可以看作是对第一节的换语：
I dare not ask a kiss,
I dare not beg a smile,
Lest having that, or this,
I might grow proud the while.
No, no, the utmost share
Of my desire shall be
Only to kiss that air
That lately kissed thee.
练习十四 （Exercise Fourteen）
I. Preview Questions:
1. Can you cite an example of Paregmenon which refers to words of the same root?
2. Why is it said that Paregmenon is a special kind of repetition?
3. Can you cite an example to indicate how Paregmenon is used together with Oxymoron?
4. Can you tell the origin of the figure of speech Malapropism?
5. What rhetoric effects can be achieved when Malapropism is used in children stories or describing people who are ignorant but pretend to know?
6. What effect can a deliberate use of Correction achieve?
7. Have you ever used the figure of Correction in your life?
8. How can you avoid using a wrong word as in Malapropism?
II. Read the following passages from Richard Sheridan and then do the exercises as required.
An error in denotation means that you have used a word wrong: the term simply does not mean what you think it does. Unlike a mistake in connotation, which results in a fuzzy word, a mistake in denotation results in an inaccurate word.
In a wonderful play, The Rivals, by Richard Sheridan, the character of Mrs. Malaprop was a silly woman who tried to appear more learned than she was and who constantly gave herself away by misusing words. In the following scene quoted, Mrs. Malaprop shows Anthony Absolute what she likes to do best — talk. Examine her choice of words.
MRS. MALAPROP: Fy, fy. Sir Anthony, you surely speak laconically.
ABSOLUTE: Why, Mrs. Malaprop, in moderation now, what would you have a woman know?
MRS. MALAPROP: Observe me, Sir Anthony. I would by no means wish a daughter of mine to be a progeny of learning; I don't think so much learning becomes a young woman; for instance, I would never let her meddle with Greek, or Hebrew, or algebra, or simony, or fluxions, or paradoxes, or such inflammatory branches of learning — neither would it be necessary for her to handle any of your mathematical, astronomical, diabolical instruments. — But, Sir Anthony, I would send her, at nine years old, to a boarding school, in order to learn a little ingenuity and artifice. Then, sir, she should have a supercilious knowledge in accounts; — and as she grew up, I would have her instructed in geometry, that she might know something of the contagious countries; — but above all, Sir Anthony, she should be mistress of orthodoxy, that she might not misspell, and mispronounce words so shamefully as girls usually do; and likewise that she might reprehend the true-meaning of what she is saying. This, Sir Anthony, is what I would have a woman know; — and I don't think there is a superstitious article in it.
Individual work: Tell whether each of the following statements is true （T） or false （F）:
1. The word “malapropism” is originated from Mrs. Malaprop, a character of The Rivals by Richard Sheridan. The woman is silly and pompous, who often makes mistakes in her choice of words or pronunciations and thus makes herself a laughing stock.
2. According to Mrs. Malaprop, she considers herself wise and learned and expects her daughter to be so too.
3. Mrs. Malaprop likes to show off by using formal and high-sounding words, but from time to time, she mispronounces a word, e.g. “simony” for “symphony”, or uses inappropriate words, e.g. The word “fluxion” is an outdated term related to “maths”. The word “reprehend” means “find fault with” and it is obviously out of place in the context, for the speaker must have intended to use “comprehend”, a formal word which means “understand”.
Group work: discuss the questions either in pairs or in group:
1. Even if you do not know everything that Mrs. Malaprop is saying, you can enjoy the fact that she misuses words shamelessly. With your partner, try to figure out what she “would have a woman know”. Use a dictionary to help you out.
2. Mistakes in denotation and connotation result in different ways. Sometimes a wrong denotation results less from not knowing a word's definition than from not thinking clearly. Analyse the errors in Mrs. Malaprop's talk and enjoy how malapropisms are used for a comedy.
III. Correct the malapropism if any, in the following sentences and tell what figure of speech can be found there:
1. Your appreciation of art depends upon your sense and sensibilizing.
2. If paid by the hour, some people will ponder away their time.
3. The space program is a waste of time and money. There are problems to solve on our land, such as starvation, overpopulation, etc. How do you think of this statement?
4. Her look was remote and reproachful, or sometimes tasteful and blameful.
5. In such stories it is exciting to break away from the predictable world we live in and to enter an unrealizable world where anything can happen.
6. Across this country one sees deep holes in the floor where man has mined, oil rigs working day and night, and open spaces which were once cradles of trees.
7. Both essential commodities and luxuries seem important, but their importance can be measured by deciding which we are prepared to live without them. Our decisions indicate our scale of preferring.
